Perfected Imperfection

Two afternoon readings converge nicely. Why does love remain? asks Jacob Taubes ( The Political Theology of Paul (Cultural Memory in the Present) ). Why do we need love when we’re perfect? Because for Paul God’s power is perfected in weakness. “We are not as the Gnostics see us,” he adds, “each perfect for himself – but rather in our need we are together in the body of Christ” (56).

And that need, Karol Wojtyla ( Love and Responsibility ) says, is imprinted on our nature. If we would look deeply enough into our sexual desires and needs, he argues, “it might help him to understand his own limitation and inadequacy, and even, indirectly, what philosophy calls the contingent character of existence” (48). We rarely stop to think about sexual desire long enough to notice; we’re more likely to act.

So, Taubes and Wojtyla together: An argument for sexual difference in the world to come, precisely because sexual difference marks our need, marks our perfection in weakness, our perfected imperfection.